Poll: 90 precent of N.C. voters support raising teacher pay

Friday

Ninety percent of North Carolina's registered voters say teacher pay should be increased, says a new nonprofit organization and a North Carolina pollster.

Pollster American Insights of Raleigh says it surveyed 611 voters on behalf of BestSchoolsNC, which describes itself as a new nonpartisan organization "bringing parents, teachers, students, community leaders, and elected officials together to advocate for commonsense solutions that will make North Carolina's schools the very best in the nation."

American Insights also is a new organization, operated former Republican political operatives. They recently found that Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan is leading Republican candidate Thom Tillis, speaker of the N.C. House, in the U.S. Senate race.

In addition to indicating that 90 percent of voters say teacher pay should be raised, the poll found:

49 percent support increases based on performance, while 41 support an "across the board" increase. 60 percent support the "recent plan announced by state lawmakers to increase base teacher pay by 14 percent, which will increase the salary of a third of North Carolina's teachers." 57 percent believe a teacher's "professional performance" should most determine her pay. 50 percent support "basing a teacher's salary, in part, on his or her students' academic progress," and 30 oppose the idea.

- Paul Woolverton

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